Auto Zoom

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We are prototyping an enhancement to SkyDemon where as well as following the course of your aircraft, the map will gently zoom in and out, as you leave your takeoff airfield and as you approach your destination.

The feature works for all map orientations, and ensures that both you and your takeoff or destination airfield are kept onscreen at the same time. This means the map is showing as much detail as possible, and is designed to be similar to what your navigating copilot would be doing. As you get closer to your destination, the map will gradually zoom from 1:500k scale (or whatever your preferred cruise scale is) right in to 1:50k scale so you can see the circuits, noise abatement and other airfield-area features. If you change your mind and fly away again, the chart will zoom out.

It also works when you're leaving an airfield. Your chart will initially be zoomed in to around 1:10k scale so you can see the taxiways and runways when you're on the ground. At the moment of takeoff it'll zoom out to 1:50k scale so circuits and noise abatement areas are visible, and when you leave the airfield behind you'll be zoomed out to 1:500k scale for the cruise.

We've written this to be a shy feature: if at any point you manually change the zoom level, SkyDemon will stop the automatic zooming until your next takeoff or landing. And of course the entire feature can be disabled if you don't like it.